1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials having improved film physical properties and, particularly, to silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials having excellent dimensional stability, good antiadhesive properties and good transparency after development.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Silver halide photographic materials generally include a layer which contains a hydrophilic colloid such as gelatin as a binder on at least one side of a support. Such a hydrophilic colloid layer has a defect that it easily expands and contracts in response to changes in humidity or temperature.
The dimensional change of the photographic light-sensitive materials resulting from the expansion and the contraction of the hydrophilic colloid layers is a very serious defect in photographic light-sensitive materials for printing.
In order to obtain photographic light-sensitive materials having a small dimensional change, namely, an excellent dimensional stability, a technique of rendering the binder flexible is known.
An example of such a technique is a process which comprises incorporating a polymer latex in a binder e.g., as described in Japanese Patent Publications 4272/64, 17702/64, 13482/68 and 5331/70 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,376,005, 2,763,625, 2,772,166, 2,852,386, 2,853,457, 3,397,988, 3,411,911 and 3,411,192.
In a hydrophilic colloid layer comprising a binder containing a polymer latex, however, the adhesiveness or tackiness increases at high humidity and, particularly, under an atmosphere of a high temperature and a high humidity, and the layer easily adheres to other articles when contacted with them.
This phenomenon of adhesion occurs during production of photographic light-sensitive materials, during processing thereof or during storage thereof between the photographic light-sensitive materials themselves or between the photographic light-sensitive material and another article coming in contact with it, with various disadvantages sometimes occurring.
In order to decrease the adhesion of the hydrophilic colloid layers (hereinafter, the term "antiadhesive property" will be used to describe this in accordance with the terminology generally employed in the art), a technique is known which comprises adding finely divided particles having an average particle size of 1 to 5.mu., for example, finely-divided particles of silica, magnesium oxide or polymethyl methacrylate, to increase the roughness of a surface of the colloid layer. This technique is generally called matting in the art.
However, there is a disadvantage in matting in that, if a matting agent is present in an amount sufficient to obtain sufficient antiadhesive property, undesirable effects occur when the photographic light-sensitive materials are developed, for example, the transparency of the images formed decreases, the granularity of the images is degraded and the lubricating property of the surface of the photographic light-sensitive materials deteriorates and the material is easily scratched.